Author
Topic: And on this farm.....I've been busy (Read 5331 times)

Oh Jody, :( :( :(. I know how things can go in life, sigh.....I am terribly sorry to hear that things are not so good, that you have to get rid of Rosy and Stewart, sigh. And yet, so wonderful, that you found it in your heart to give Chevy to that lady that lost her dear ol' goat. I would hope that this woman would provide Chevy with enough personal company, to take that sadness away, of her lost pen mates. I know these things are personal, and sometimes we don't want to speak about them in public, but if you want to pour your heart out to me, please give me a PM, with your e-mail address and we can speak. I can uplift your soul, you know that....but in the meantime, how long were you able to keep Rosey for? Stewart? Tell that tale, pleeeeze, if you feel that you can. I would love to listen. But, I bet you can speak of your bees, what happened with them? Pleeeeeze. Do have that most wonderful day, love and live it Jody, like there was narry a tomorrow, with health. Cindi

Logged

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Cindi, she is one of my closest friends. She gave me Maddy (my dog) & I gave her 2 cockatiels 16 years ago. We were riding buddies so Chevy has horses to bother and she calls to let me know the funny things he does. I know he will be well taken care of and is happy. Would have been selfish of me to make him stay here alone. I will PM you when I get the chance. You are an animal lover & steward like me so I know you understand. Rose and Stew went back to Stephani's house in July. She is re-bred & in a huge pasture with some other moms to be and spoiled. She is being trained to milk too! It was a huge relief to know my babies were going to be OK. I love reading Brian's posts and trying to imagine what the changes look like!

The wind blew some of the panels off the green house so I had to repair that. One of the panels ended up in the pasture down by the creek. When I went to retrieve it noticed that the water was undercutting the old foot bridge and small land slides had dumped dirt into the creek. It quickly gets washed down stream. So I spent a few hours re-arranging rocks to reduce the erosion and protect the bridge pilings.

Went to the Dentist, I need to get a molar bridge made, I'm tired of chewing everything with only one upper molar. While I was gone one of the ewes fell into the creek and drowned and the other got pneumonia. I am now trying to nurse the sick ewe back to health, a load of parasitic worms doesn't help. I had all the remaining animals treated for worms and am giving the ewe 60 ml of an antibiotic 2 times daily. It's still down, not standing, and we have to move it around as well as force feed it. If it's not better by Monday, today's Saturday, I'm going to call the vet again.

My knee is still giving me fits and I've had to double the amount of pain meds I'm taking in order to do things. Yesterday my youngest brother came over and we butchered 3 turkeys. Ther little mini white dressed out at 9 lbs and we gave her to a family friend who has never eaten a real range fed turkey before. The 2 Broad Breasted Bronze hens both dressed out at 23 lbs after weighing in at 29.5 lbs live weight. I really had to move things around in the 2 freezers down stairs in order to put both birds in the freezer until Thanksgiving and Christmas. I thiink I have nearly a years supply of home grown meat of various kinds between both freezers and between freezing and canning from the orchard and garden, nearly the same in fruits and vegetables.

With my tractor and other equipment I think I'm going to get me a 500 gallon gasoline storage tank, I already have 2 15 gallon takks for the generator. Then I should be able to ride out any disaster for several months, and maybe up to a year, depending on how much we use the truck.

Today I'm taking a break, my knees is still giving me fits, as mentioned, and the Menier's has given me a migraine and dizzy spells.

For those who are interested, my survey of the bees, birds, and animals tell me we'll have a cold one this winter. Not necessarily a long winter but one with some real cold spells. The bees are still working when they can, the down feathers on the turkeys and chickens is extra think as is the hair/wool on the rabbits, goats, and sheep.

Logged

Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Sorry about your day. The poor little ewes, I hope the other one makes a recovery.We had one of those everything is going wrong days too.The tarp roof over the meatbird pen collapsed in the rain and wind we had today and flooded water in the pen.a couple of the grommets ripped out and so it allowed water to pool instead of staying tight.We had to grab them all out of there, shovel the area out, clean out the food bins that filled with water etc.After we put the clean shavings back down and refilled the feeders I brought the birds back in.I have 115 meatbirds, but we only have the ones that were old enough to move out of the brooder in the pen, so there were 65 of them to move.They were just moved out there so they are not completely feathered out(not that the cornish x feather out well anyway) and I still have them on heat lamps.In a pinch I grabbed the recycle bins in the yard and filled them with the chickens and brought them in and dried them off the best I could using a hairdryer so we wouldn't lose them all.If they were older I wouldn't have worried about it as much but they just got out of the brooder.Then the car wouldn't start so that wasn't fun.

I heard that this is going to be a bad winter too, the farmer's almanac and some other sites are saying if you look at the animals and insects you can tell.I got lots of firewood, I will have a freezer full of chicken that I raised and another freezer full of beef that I bought off a local farmer.I ordered a side of grass fed beef and then I ordered 4 turkeys from a local guy.I canned a bunch of stuff this past summer too.Its good to be prepared.

Oh Brian, my heart goes out to ya. What a horrid thing about the ewe. Was she too far gone to even think about putting her in the freezer? Always wondered about animal death, if that meat is edible or not, elaborate.

Sorry to hear of your knee, that is retched, and your teeth, oh brother.

You know I am interested always to hear of your forecasts, as like the weather. We are very temperate here yet, but I recall last year, all of us on the west coast had a very frigid winter. Frozen from middle of December until the middle of February, that is gonna be a nasty if it is cold again like that this winter. I do believe you, and I am now making better preparations for an upcoming cold one.

So good that you are prepared for food and life saving stuff, should any catastrophe occur. That is a huge part of the faith that you have, I have that faith in my family as well, you know that. Food storage for one year's time has always been a big thing with our families. Not that I am that good at food storage, but I know how to feed well, on little supplies, I was taught by a very wise Mother. Wish she was here.

Great that you gave that bird to the family that has never had a free range, home grown turkey, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to LOVE it, and want more...

Hmmm...what else did you say, gotta re-read your post...hold on....oh yes, the rocks, that is some hard work to move around rocks, I know all about rock moving 8-) ;) :) :) :). Do take care, Brian.

Natalie, what a bummer. You have had your fair share of hard work with that roof thing, eeks. Keep up that chin. Have the most beautiful and awesome day, life, health. Cindi

Logged

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Lady died, that's the name my daughters gave to the ewe with pneumonia. I'll have to start over in the spring but this time I'll buy local and tame and not some half-wild free range sheep from the eastern Okanogan hills. Some X4H ewes would be ideal, good quality and well taken care of. Need to post an add on tthe message board at the local Co-op/Grange supply store.

My knee is getting better as long as I don't walk on it. At least not any further than the bathroom.

Burying the sheep is going to have to wait a few days until I can coax my son into digging another hole. At least my power auger makes that task a lot easier. We can dig and 4'X4'X2'deep hole pretty quickly using the 8" auger bit.

Logged

Life is a school. What have you learned? :brian: The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

I'm sorry about your ewd Brian. It's bad enough to lose an animal but even worse when it's a large one and you hae the practical task of disposing of the body. Not like a goldish or gerbil... Try a 1200# horse..qiote a task! n I think the 4H idea is a sound one, they take really good care amd some pretty good stock is onated. Take care throug this next storm, sounds like a windy wet one!